August 1, 1981 (Saturday)

• MTV
  MTV
  MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
  
  , the Music Television cable network, went on the air at 12:01 AM from Fort Lee, New Jersey
  Fort Lee, New Jersey
  Fort Lee is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 35,345. Located atop the Hudson Palisades, the borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge...
  
   on cable systems in the United States, with John Lack's introductory words, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll." Initially, MTV showed music videos 24 hours a day. The very first
  First music videos aired on MTV
  This is a list of the first music videos broadcast on MTV's first day, August 1, 1981. Video of the launch of MTV was uploaded onto YouTube in 2009.-List:#"Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles#"You Better Run" by Pat Benatar...
  
   selection was "Video Killed the Radio Star
  Video Killed the Radio Star
  "Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song by the British synthpop/New Wave group The Buggles, released as their debut single on 7 September 1979, on Island Records from their debut album The Age of Plastic. It celebrates the golden days of radio, describing a singer whose career is cut short by...
  
  " from Buggles. Pat Benatar
  Pat Benatar
  Pat Benatar is an American singer and four-time Grammy winner. She had considerable commercial success particularly in the United States...
  
  's "You Better Run" was the second. It was not until March 10, 1983, however, that MTV played a video from a non-white artist in heavy rotation for the first time. When it launched, MTV reached 800,000 subscribers and cable television was still in only 25% of American homes.
• Abu Daoud
  Abu Daoud
  Mohammad Daoud Oudeh , commonly known by his nom de guerre Abu Daoud or Abu Dawud was a Palestinian militant known as the planner, architect and mastermind of the Munich massacre...
  
  , the PLO terrorist who had overseen the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes
  Munich massacre
  The Munich massacre is an informal name for events that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria in southern West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually killed by the Palestinian group Black September. Members of Black September...
  
   was shot five times at close range while sitting in the coffee shop of the Victoria Hotel in Warsaw
  Warsaw
  Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
  
  .
• A freight train derailment near San Luis Potosi
  San Luis Potosí
  San Luis Potosí officially Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí....
  
   ruptured a tanker car carrying chlorine
  Chlorine
  Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...
  
   gas, killing 29 people and sending another 1,000 to the hospital.
• Died: Paddy Chayefsky
  Paddy Chayefsky
  Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky , was an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for Best Screenplay....
  
  , 58, American screenwriter and 3-time Oscar winner

August 2, 1981 (Sunday)

• Lou Cannon
  Lou Cannon
  Louis Cannon is an American journalist, non-fiction author, and biographer. He was state bureau chief for the San Jose Mercury News in the late 1960s, and later senior White House correspondent of the Washington Post during the Reagan administration...
  
   of the Washington Post published the first description of President Reagan as "The Great Communicator". Variations of the nickname ("communicator-executive", "Communicator in Chief") had appeared earlier.
• Frederick Mellinger, owner of Frederick's of Hollywood
  Frederick's of Hollywood
  Frederick's of Hollywood is a well-known retailer of women's lingerie in the United States, with stores in many modern shopping malls across the USA....
  
  , introduced thong underwear
  Thong (clothing)
  The thong is a garment generally worn as either underwear or as a swimsuit in many industrialized societies around the world. It may also be worn for traditional ceremonies or competitions such as sumo wrestling...
  
   to the United States.
• Mohammad Ali Rajai
  Mohammad Ali Rajai
  Mohammad Ali Rajai was the second elected President of Iran from 2 to 30 August 1981, after serving as Prime Minister under Abolhassan Banisadr. He was also Minister of Foreign Affairs from 11 March 1981 to 15 August 1981, while he was Prime Minister...
  
   was sworn in as the 2nd President of Iran
  President of Iran
  The President of Iran is the highest popularly elected official in, and the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; although subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who functions as the country's head of state...
  
  .
• Died: Delfo Cabrera
  Delfo Cabrera
  Delfo Cabrera Gómez was an Argentine athlete, winner of the marathon race at the 1948 Summer Olympics in one of the most dramatic finishes in athletics history.-Biography:...
  
  , 62, Argentine runner who won the 1948 Olympic marathon
  Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon
  The men's marathon event at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games took place August 7. The final was won by Delfo Cabrera.-Results:Key: DNF = Did not finish-References:*, from http://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2010-09-05....
  
  , in a car accident in Buenos Aires.

August 3, 1981 (Monday)

• The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) went on strike at 7:00 am Eastern Time. The union's demand was for each employee to have a $10,000 annual wage increase, a 32 hour workweek and increased benefits. President Reagan, citing the law that prohibited federal government employees from striking, ordered walkouts to return before 11:00 am EST Wednesday or be fired. Of the 16,395 Americans who guided airplane takeoffs and landings, 4,199 stayed on the job. The Federal Aviation Administration
  Federal Aviation Administration
  The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
  
   (FAA) responded by using a central control station to send clearances to the nation's airports, which operated at 50% capacity.

August 4, 1981 (Tuesday)

• U.S. Patent 4,659,716 was granted to the American pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough
  Schering-Plough
  Schering-Plough Corporation was a United States-based pharmaceutical company. It was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering as Schering AG in Germany. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough to form Schering-Plough. On November 4, 2009 Merck & Co...
  
   for the active ingredient in Claritin, descarboethoxyloratadine, although the FDA did not approve the medicine's use until April 12, 1993. By 1999, Claritin had become the top selling antihistamine in America, with sales of $1.5 billion.
• U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North
  Oliver North
  Oliver Laurence North is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, political commentator, host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel, a military historian, and a New York Times best-selling author....
  
  , who in 1987 would become a central figure in the Iran-Contra Affair
  Iran-Contra Affair
  The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...
  
   and then a conservative commentator, became a staffer on the National Security Council
  United States National Security Council
  The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...
  
  .
• In what was, at the time, the largest corporate merger in American history, the DuPont
  DuPont
  E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
  
   chemical company acquired majority ownership of the petroleum company Conoco Inc.
  Conoco Inc.
  Conoco Inc. was an American oil company founded in 1875 as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company. It is now a brand of gasoline and service station in the United States which belongs to the ConocoPhillips Company...
  
   for 7.8 billion dollars, buying up outstanding stock at 2:45 a.m.
• A day after a rebellion broke out at Santa Curz
  Santa Cruz de la Sierra
  Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia and the largest city in the country...
  
  , General Luis Garcia Meza was forced to resign as President of Bolivia
  President of Bolivia
  The President of Bolivia is head of state and head of government of Bolivia. According to the current Constitution, the president is elected by popular vote to a five year term, renewable once...
  
  . He was replaced by a junta led by General Celso Torrelio
  Celso Torrelio
  Celso Torrelio Villa was a military general, a member of the Junta of Commanders of the Armed Forces , and de facto President of Bolivia between September 1981 and August 1982....
  
  .
• Born: Marques Houston
  Marques Houston
  Marques Barrett Houston is an American R&B singer, songwriter, rapper, and actor. A member of the R&B singing group Immature/IMx until 2002, he went solo in 2003. He is also the cousin of J-Boog, former member of the R&B/Hip-Hop group B2K....
  
  , American singer and actor, in Los Angeles
  Los Ángeles
  Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
  
  
• Died: Melvyn Douglas
  Melvyn Douglas
  Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
  
  , 80, American film actor, winner of two Oscars

August 5, 1981 (Wednesday)

• President Reagan ordered the firing of 11,359 American air-traffic controllers who had ignored his 11:00 am deadline for returning to work. Another 875 who had walked out had come back before being fired. There was no negotiation with PATCO President Robert Poli, and the union was decertified on October 22. Poli himself resigned on December 31.
• The 55 foot tall Percheron rocket, privately built by Space Services Inc., exploded on the launch pad at Matagorda Island
  Matagorda Island
  Matagorda Island, Spanish for "thick brush," is a 38 mile long barrier island on the Texas Gulf coast, about seven miles south of Port O'Connor, in the southernmost part of Calhoun County. The island is oriented generally northeast-southwest, with the Gulf of Mexico on the east and south, and...
  
   in Texas
  Texas
  Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
  
  . The company started over with a new rocket, Conestoga One
  Conestoga (rocket)
  The Conestoga was a rocket consisting originally of surplus Minuteman missile stages with additional strap-on boosters, as required, for larger payloads. It was the world's first privately-funded commercial rocket, but was used only three times before the program was shut down due to a lack of...
  
  , which was launched on suborbital flight on September 9, 1982.
• By a vote of 130-14, Mohammad Javad Bahonar
  Mohammad Javad Bahonar
  Hojatoleslam Mohammad Javad Bahonar was an Iranian scholar, Shiite theologian and politician who served as the Prime minister of Iran from 15 to 30 August 1981 when he was assassinated by Mujahideen-e Khalq MEK, also known as PMOI and KMO...
  
   was elected by the Majlis
  Majlis of Iran
  The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...
  
   as the new Prime Minister of Iran
  Prime Minister of Iran
  Prime Minister of Iran was a political post in Iran that had existed during several different periods of time starting with the Qajar era until its most recent revival from 1979 to 1989 following the Iranian Revolution.-Prime Ministers of Qajar era:In the Qajar era, prime ministers were known by...
  
  .
• Born: Carl Crawford
  Carl Crawford
  Carl Demonte Crawford is an American professional baseball outfielder who plays for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. He bats and throws left-handed...
  
  , American MLB outfielder and stolen base champion, in Houston; and Rachel Scott
  Rachel Scott
  Rachel Joy Scott was the first victim of the Columbine High School massacre, which claimed the lives of 12 students, one teacher and the two perpetrators, in one of the deadliest high school shootings in United States history.She has since been the subject of several books and is the...
  
  , American student who was killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre
  Columbine High School massacre
  The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
  
  ; and Jon Fogarty, Second best ninja in the world.
• Died: Jerzy Neyman
  Jerzy Neyman
  Jerzy Neyman , born Jerzy Spława-Neyman, was a Polish American mathematician and statistician who spent most of his professional career at the University of California, Berkeley.-Life and career:...
  
  , 87, Moldavian born mathematician who introduced the confidence interval
  Confidence interval
  In statistics, a confidence interval is a particular kind of interval estimate of a population parameter and is used to indicate the reliability of an estimate. It is an observed interval , in principle different from sample to sample, that frequently includes the parameter of interest, if the...
  
   for testing in inferential statistics and revolutionized data sampling techniques.

August 6, 1981 (Thursday)

• President Reagan gave the go-ahead for U.S. production of the neutron bomb
  Neutron bomb
  A neutron bomb or enhanced radiation weapon or weapon of reinforced radiation is a type of thermonuclear weapon designed specifically to release a large portion of its energy as energetic neutron radiation rather than explosive energy...
  
  , with warheads for 380 Lance missiles and 800 on 150-mm howitzers for U.S. troops in Europe.
• France
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
  's Communication Minister, Georges Fillioud
  Georges Fillioud
  Georges Fillioud was a French politician. He was a member of the French gouvernment in charge of mass media from 1981 to 1986, under former President François Mitterand.-Biography:...
  
  , announced the end of the state radio monopoly in France and permitted privately owned stations for the first time. Within two months, 400 new stations were on the air.
• Died: Urban Tigner Holmes, American theologian; and Corradino D'Ascanio
  Corradino D'Ascanio
  General Corradino D'Ascanio was an Italian aeronautical engineer. D'Ascanio designed the first production helicopter, for Agusta, and designed the first motor scooter for Ferdinando Innocenti...
  
  , 70 Italian inventor

August 7, 1981 (Friday)

• The Washington Star
  Washington Star
  The Washington Star, previously known as the Washington Star-News and the Washington Evening Star, was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C. between 1852 and 1981. For most of that time, it was the city's newspaper of record, and the longtime home to columnist Mary McGrory and...
  
  published its final edition, with the headline "128 Years of Service Ending", and a letter from President Reagan noting, "There is a great silence today in Washington." The last masthead noted "129th year, No. 219" and the paper sold 640,000 copies, double its nomral circulation and the largest run in the paper's history.

August 8, 1981 (Saturday)

• Born: Roger Federer
  Roger Federer
  Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...
  
  , professional tennis champion (Wimbledon 2003-09, U.S. Open 2004-09, French Open 2008-09, 5 Australian opens); in Bottmingen
  Bottmingen
  Bottmingen is a municipality in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Land in Switzerland.-Geography:Bottmingen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 25.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 18.4% is forested...
  
  , Switzerland
  Switzerland
  Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
  
  . On the same day, Andrea Jaeger
  Andrea Jaeger
  Andrea Jaeger is a former World No. 2 professional tennis player from the United States whose brief but highly successful tennis career ended prematurely due to major shoulder injuries. Jaeger reached the singles final of Wimbledon in 1983 and the French Open in 1982...
  
   won her first major pro title, beating Virginia Ruzici
  Virginia Ruzici
  Virginia Ruzici is a former professional tennis player from Romania. She was born in Câmpia Turzii, Romania and turned professional in 1975. One of her main assets on court was her powerful forehand....
  
   at the U.S. Clay Courts championship
  U.S. Open Clay Courts
  The U.S. Open Clay Courts, known formally as the U.S. Clay Court Championships, was a national tennis championship for women that was sanctioned by the United States Tennis Association and held 18 times from 1953 through 1986 on green clay courts....
  
   final in Indianapolis.

August 9, 1981 (Sunday)

• Major League Baseball
  Major League Baseball
  Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
  
   resumed after a 59 day long strike and the cancellation of 713 games. The All-Star Game
  Major League Baseball All-Star Game
  The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
  
  , originally set for July 14, opened in Cleveland, and regular games resumed the next day, with all teams at 0-0 for the second half of the season, and the four division leaders at the time of the strike getting playoff spots as first half pennant winners.
• Born: Li Jiawei, Chinese-American table tennis star, in Beijing
  Beijing
  Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
  
  

August 10, 1981 (Monday)

• Born: Taufik Hidayat
  Taufik Hidayat
  Taufik Hidayat is an Indonesian badminton player. He is a former World and Olympic champion in men's singles...
  
  , Indonesian badminton player (Olympic gold 2004, World Champion 2005, in Bandung
  Bandung
  Bandung is the capital of West Java province in Indonesia, and the country's third largest city, and 2nd largest metropolitan area in Indonesia, with a population of 7.4 million in 2007. Located 768 metres above sea level, approximately 140 km southeast of Jakarta, Bandung has cooler...
  
  
• Died: Jack Kiefer
  Jack Kiefer
  Leo C. "Jack" Kiefer was an American professional golfer who won two Senior PGA Tour events in the 1990s....
  
  , 57, American mathematician and statistician, pioneering optimal design
  Optimal design
  Optimal designs are a class of experimental designs that are optimal with respect to some statistical criterion.In the design of experiments for estimating statistical models, optimal designs allow parameters to be estimated without bias and with minimum-variance...
  
  
• Born: Rupa Dasa Gomez Santiago, Winner of the Golden Hammer award

August 11, 1981 (Tuesday)

• The very first AIDS
  AIDS
  Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
  
   fundraiser took place at the New York City apartment of activist Larry Kramer
  Larry Kramer
  Larry Kramer is an American playwright, author, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to London where he worked with United Artists. There he wrote the screenplay for Women in Love in 1969, earning...
  
  . In that initial meeting, suggested by physician Dr. Alvin Friedman-Kien, $6,365 was raised, the first of billions of dollars set aside in the 30 years since.

August 12, 1981 (Wednesday)

• The IBM PC
  IBM PC
  The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
  
   was introduced at a press conference at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
  Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
  The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
  
   in New York, and with it MS-DOS
  MS-DOS
  MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
  
   software owned by Microsoft
  Microsoft
  Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
  
  . Though the product of International Business Machines personal computer
  Personal computer
  A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
  
   was not the first desktop, it was the most first designed for the ordinary user to use. The original IBM PC had 16 kilobytes of random access memory and a base price of $1,565. In the first four months, 35,000 were sold, and by the end of 1982, more than 800,000 had been purchased.
• Born: Djibril Cissé
  Djibril Cissé
  Djibril Aruun Cissé is a French international footballer who currently plays for Serie A club Lazio as a striker. He is noted particularly for his speed and acceleration. Since 2005, he has held the title of Lord of the Manor of Frodsham....
  
  , French footballer, in Arles
  Arles
  Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....
  
  

August 13, 1981 (Thursday)

• On vacation at his ranch
  Rancho del Cielo
  Rancho del Cielo, or "Sky's or Heaven's Ranch," is a ranch located on the top of the Santa Ynez Mountain range northwest of Santa Barbara, California...
  
   near Santa Barbara, California
  Santa Barbara, California
  Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
  
  , U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, the 25% income tax cut for which he had sought passage.
• At the U.S. Long Course Swimming Championships at Brown Deer, Wisconsin
  Brown Deer, Wisconsin
  Brown Deer is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. It is a suburb of Milwaukee. The population was 11,999 at the 2010 census...
  
  , Mary T. Meagher
  Mary T. Meagher
  Mary Terstegge Meagher Plant is an Olympic champion and former World Record holding swimmer from the United States...
  
  , 16, shattered her own world record for fastest time in the women's 100-meter butterfly swimming competition, with a time of 57.93 seconds. The mark stood for 18 years until it was broken by Jenny Thompson
  Jenny Thompson
  Jennifer Beth Thompson is an American former competitive swimmer, and one of the most decorated Olympians in history, winning twelve medals, including eight gold medals , in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympics.Thompson, a Massachusetts native who calls Dover, New Hampshire her...
  
   on August 23, 1999.

August 14, 1981 (Friday)

• Died: Karl Böhm
  Karl Böhm
  Karl August Leopold Böhm was an Austrian conductor. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century.- Education :...
  
  , 86, Austrian symphonic and operatic conductor

August 15, 1981 (Saturday)

• The Eternal Word Television Network
  Eternal Word Television Network
  The Eternal Word Television Network is an American cable television network which presents Catholic-themed programming. It was founded in 1980 by Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, PCPA...
  
  , devoted to spreading the Roman Catholic faith in the United States and founded by Mother Angelica
  Mother Angelica
  Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, PCPA is an American Roman Catholic nun who founded the Eternal Word Television Network. In 1944 she entered the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, a Franciscan religious order for women, as a postulant, and a year later she was admitted to the order as a...
  
  , made its cable television debut at 6:00 pm Central Time on the date of the Feast of the Assumption. Based in Irondale, Alabama
  Irondale, Alabama
  Irondale is a city adjacent to Birmingham, Alabama, United States northeast from Homewood and Mountain Brook. At the 2010 census the population was 12,349. The book Fried Green Tomatoes, by Irondale native Fannie Flagg, is loosely based around the town and the landmark Irondale Cafe, known as The...
  
  , EWTN was, by 2000, the largest religious cable network in the world, on 1,500 systems in 38 nations.
• Died: Carol Ryrie Brink
  Carol Ryrie Brink
  Carol Ryrie Brink was an American author of over thirty juvenile and adult books. Her novel Caddie Woodlawn won the 1936 Newbery Medal...
  
  , 85, American children's author; and Sir Humphrey Waldock
  Humphrey Waldock
  Sir Humphrey Meredith Waldock was a British jurist and international lawyer. Humphrey Waldock served as the British judge in the European Court of Human Rights from 1966 until 1974 and in the International Court of Justice from 1973 until 1981. He was also the president of the ICJ between 1979...
  
  , 77, President of the International Court of Justice
  International Court of Justice
  The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
  
   (World Court)

August 16, 1981 (Sunday)

• Three days after setting the mark at 100 meters, Mary T. Meagher set an even longer lasting record for the 200 meter butterfly. Her time of 2 minutes, 5.96 seconds stood until May 17, 2000, when Susie O'Neill recorded 2:05.81.
• The Inkomo Barracks, main arsenal for the Zimbabwe National Army
  Zimbabwe National Army
  The Zimbabwe National Army is the land warfare branch of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. The ZNA currently has an active duty strength of 30,000.-History:...
  
  , was destroyed by South African engineers in a series of three explosions over a period of four hours.
• Died: Ervil LeBaron
  Ervil LeBaron
  Ervil Morrell LeBaron was the leader of a polygamous Mormon fundamentalist group who ordered the killings of many of his opponents, using the religious doctrine of blood atonement to justify the murders...
  
  , 56, convicted murderer who had founded the Church of the Lamb of God, died at the Utah State Prison. On the same day, his brother and successor as the church's leader, Verlan LeBaron, 54, died in an auto accident in Mexico City.

August 17, 1981 (Monday)

• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York transferred to the N.V. Settlement Bank of the Netherlands the amount of $2,038,000,000 of Iranian assets to conclude the Algiers Agreement reached in January. Of that, one billion was tranferred to an interest bearing "Security Account" for payment of future claims made against Iran, and the remainder was transferred to Bank Markazi Iran. Under the agreement, Iran was required to replenish the account if its balance falls below $500,000,000.

August 18, 1981 (Tuesday)

• Died: Anita Loos
  Anita Loos
  Anita Loos was an American screenwriter, playwright and author.-Early life:Born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California , where her father, R. Beers Loos, had opened a tabloid newspaper for which her mother, Minerva "Minnie" Smith did most of the work of a newspaper publisher...
  
  , 93, American novelist, screenwriter and playwright, best known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; and Russell Bennett, 87, Broadway orchestrator

August 19, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)
  Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)
  In the first Gulf of Sidra incident, 19 August 1981, two Libyan Su-22 Fitter attack aircraft were shot down by two American F-14 Tomcats off of the Libyan coast.-Background:...
  
  : Libya
  Libya
  Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
  
  n leader Muammar al-Gaddafi
  Muammar al-Gaddafi
  Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
  
   sent two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat
  F-14 Tomcat
  The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental program following the collapse of the F-111B project...
  
   fighters that had taken off from the U.S.S. Nimitz over the Gulf of Sidra
  Gulf of Sidra
  Gulf of Sidra is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya; it is also known as Gulf of Sirte or the Great Sirte or Greater Syrtis .- Geography :The Gulf of Sidra has been a major centre for tuna fishing in the Mediterranean for centuries...
  
  . The lead Libyan plane fired an Atoll heat-seeking missile at Lt. Lawrence Musczynski and missed. Musczynski fired a Sidewinder missile
  AIM-9 Sidewinder
  The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, short-range, air-to-air missile carried mostly by fighter aircraft and recently, certain gunship helicopters. The missile entered service with United States Air Force in the early 1950s, and variants and upgrades remain in active service with many air forces...
  
   at the Libyan plane. Commander Hank Kleeman fired another missile at the Libyan wingman, who had time to eject to safety. Both Libyan Su-22s were destroyed, in the first dogfight
  Dogfight
  A dogfight, or dog fight, is a form of aerial combat between fighter aircraft; in particular, combat of maneuver at short range, where each side is aware of the other's presence. Dogfighting first appeared during World War I, shortly after the invention of the airplane...
  
   involving U.S. planes since 1973. Libya reported that both pilots had ejected to safety, and claimed that an American fighter had been downed. President Reagan was asleep when word got in and was not informed until six hours later.

August 20, 1981 (Thursday)

• Born: Benjamin Barnes
  Ben Barnes (actor)
  Benjamin Thomas "Ben" Barnes is an English actor, best known for his portrayal of Caspian X in The Chronicles of Narnia films Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.-Early life and education:...
  
  , English film actor who portrayed Prince Caspian
  Prince Caspian
  Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia is a novel for children by C. S. Lewis, written in late 1949 and first published in 1951. It is the second-published book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, although in the overall chronological sequence it comes fourth.-Plot summary:While standing on a...
  
   in two Narnia films; in London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
  
• Died: Michael Devine
  Michael Devine
  Michael James "Mickey" Devine was a volunteer of the Irish National Liberation Army who died on the 1981 Irish hunger strike.-Background:...
  
  , 27, the tenth and last casualty of the Maze Prison hunger strikers. Owen Carron
  Owen Carron
  Owen Gerard Carron is an Irish republican activist and who was Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 1981 to 1983.Carron is the nephew of former Nationalist Party politician John Carron....
  
  , running for the IRA the same day in the by-election for the Fermanagh/South Tyrone constituency that had been held by Bobby Sands, won a place in the House of Commons.

August 21, 1981 (Friday)

• In Las Vegas, Wilfredo Gomez
  Wilfredo Gómez
  Wilfredo Gómez , sometimes referred to as Bazooka Gómez, is a former boxer and three time world champion.-Biography:...
  
   lost the WBC junior featherweight boxing championship to Salvador Sanchez
  Salvador Sánchez
  Salvador Sánchez Narváez was a Mexican boxer born in the town of Santiago Tianguistenco, Estado de México. Many of his contemporaries as well as boxing writers believe that, had it not been for his premature death, Sanchez could have gone on to become the greatest Featherweight boxer of all time...
  
  .

August 22, 1981 (Saturday)

• Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103
  Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103
  Far East Air Transport Flight 103 , a Boeing 737-222, had just departed Taipei Songshan Airport for Kaohsiung when the aircraft broke apart in mid-air 14 minutes after take-off....
  
   suffered an explosive decompression
  Explosive decompression
  Uncontrolled decompression refers to an unplanned drop in the pressure of a sealed system, such as an aircraft cabin and typically results from human error, material fatigue, engineering failure or impact causing a pressure vessel to vent into its lower-pressure surroundings or fail to pressurize...
  
   at an altitude of 22,000 feet over the Taiwanese village of Sanyi, Miaoli
  Sanyi, Miaoli
  Sanyi Township is a township in southern Miaoli County, Taiwan. It is famous for its mudiao industry earning it the name the woodcarving kingdom of Taiwan .-Geography:Sanyi is located in the mountains of northwestern Taiwan...
  
  , killing all 110 persons on board. The Boeing 737-200 had taken off from Taipei
  Taipei
  Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
  
   14 minutes earlier en route to Kaohsiung
  Kaohsiung
  Kaohsiung is a city located in southwestern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on the west. Kaohsiung, officially named Kaohsiung City, is divided into thirty-eight districts. The city is one of five special municipalities of the Republic of China...
  
  . Subsequent investigation showed that the plane had lost cabin pressure on an August 5 flight, and again on a flight two hours earlier. The probable cause was found to have been corrosion of the fuselage floor, possibly caused by the transport in the cargo hold of open barrels of fish preserved in brine.

August 23, 1981 (Sunday)

• Typhoon Thad, Japan
  Japan
  Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
  
  's worst storm in 16 years, killed 40 people and left 20,000 homeless in Japan.

August 24, 1981 (Monday)

• South Africa
  South Africa
  The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
  
  n troops invaded Angola
  Angola
  Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
  
   as part of Operation Protea
  Operation Protea
  Operation Protea was a military operation during the South African Border War and Angolan Civil War in which South African Defence Forces destroyed a number SWAPO bases in Angola. During the operation, which took place from August 23 to September 4, 1981, up to 5,000 SADF soldiers occupied Cunene...
  
  , capturing Xangongo
  Xangongo
  Xangongo is a town in Cunene Province, Angola. It is located at around . It was also the site of considerable fighting in the war for the independence of Namibia and the Angolan Civil War.-Xangongo and SWAPO:...
  
   and cutting its water supply. Two days later, Ondjiva
  Ondjiva
  Ondjiva is a town located in southern Angola. It is the administrative capital of Cunene Province.- Transport :...
  
   was taken. Both sites, located along the border with Namibia
  Namibia
  Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
  
  , had been used as bases by SWAPO, the South West Africa People's Organization. South African involvement would last until 1988.
• In Tokyo, Sony Chairman Akio Morita
  Akio Morita
  Akio Morita KBE was a Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony Corporation along with Masaru Ibuka.-Early life:...
  
   introduced the Mavica, which he said "will make conventional chemical photography and development obsolete". An acronym for MAgnetic VIdeo CAmera, Mavica was not the first digital camera
  Digital camera
  A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
  
  , and created an analog image on a videodisk, similar to a freeze-frame on a videotape. The first digital camera on sale was the Dycam, introduced in 1991
• Born: Chad Michael Murray
  Chad Michael Murray
  Chad Michael Murray is an American actor, former fashion model and spokesperson. Murray is well known for portraying Lucas Scott in The CW young adult drama series One Tree Hill, in addition to the commercially successful films A Cinderella Story, Freaky Friday and House of Wax...
  
  , American TV actor (One Tree Hill
  One Tree Hill (TV series)
  One Tree Hill is an American television drama created by Mark Schwahn, which premiered on September 23, 2003, on The WB Television Network. After its third season, The WB merged with UPN to form The CW Television Network, and, since September 27, 2006, the network has been the official broadcaster...
  
  ), in Buffalo
  Buffalo, New York
  Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
  
  
• Died: Major General William F. Dean
  William F. Dean
  William Frishe Dean, Sr. was a major general in the United States Army during World War II and the Korean War. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 20 and 21, 1950, during the Battle of Taejon in South Korea...
  
  , highest ranking American officer to be taken prisoner in the Korean War. After his capture by North Korea on August 25, 1950, he remained a POW until September 4, 1953, six weeks after the ceasefire. He was awarded the Medal of Honor
  Medal of Honor
  The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
  
   upon his return home.

August 25, 1981 (Tuesday)

• Voyager 2
  Voyager 2
  The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space...
  
  , launched on August 20, 1977, made its closest approach to Saturn
  Saturn
  Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
  
  , passing within 41,000 kilometers of the ringed planet. Voyager 2 had reached Jupiter
  Jupiter
  Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
  
   July 9, 1979, and would go on to Uranus
  Uranus
  Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
  
   (January 24, 1986) and Neptune
  Neptune
  Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
  
   ( August 25, 1989)
• Born: Rachel Bilson
  Rachel Bilson
  Rachel Sarah Bilson is an American actress. Bilson grew up in a California show business family, and made her television debut in 2003, subsequently becoming well known for playing Summer Roberts on the prime time drama series The O.C. Bilson made her film debut in the 2006 film The Last Kiss and...
  
  , American TV actress (The OC), in Los Angeles
• Died: Jack Tyree, 37, film stuntman. Tyree was killed during the filming of The Sword and the Sorcerer
  The Sword and the Sorcerer
  The Sword and the Sorcerer is a 1982 fantasy film, starring Lee Horsley, Richard Lynch, and Richard Moll, directed by Albert Pyun. A mercenary with a three-bladed sword rediscovers his royal heritage when he is recruited to help a princess foil the designs of a brutal tyrant and a powerful...
  
  . He missed an airbag by 2 feet after jumping from a 180 foot high cliff.

August 26, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Died: Roger Baldwin
  Roger Nash Baldwin
  Roger Nash Baldwin was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union . He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950....
  
  , 97, founder, in 1920, of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); and Lee Hays, 67, American folk singer,

August 27, 1981 (Thursday)

• A team of divers recovered a safe from the wreckage of the cruise ship SS Andrea Doria
  SS Andrea Doria
  SS Andrea Doria[p] was an ocean liner for the Italian Line home ported in Genoa, Italy, most famous for its sinking in 1956, when 46 people died. Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the ship had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1,200 passengers and...
  
  , which sank in the Atlantic Ocean on July 25, 1956. The safe, from the Bank of Rome, was located in a lounge on the ship's foyer, 225 feet below the surface. On August 16, 1984, the safe was opened on live television as part of a syndicated program, Andrea Doria: The Final Chapter. A large audience tuned in to see the results on 160 stations in 45 countries, and when the safe was opened, it yielded a few thousand dollars worth of waterlogged American dollars and Italian lire.
• Died: Wilhelm Schafer
  Wilhelm Schäfer
  - Life :Born in Ottrau , until 1896 Schäfer was a school teacher. He gained a scholarship to study in Switzerland and France through the Cotta-Verlag publishing house, and in 1898 became a freelance writer in Berlin...
  
  , 72, German paleontologist; and Valeri Kharlamov, 33, Soviet ice hockey star, in an auto accident in Moscow
• Born: Maxwell Cabelino Andrade
  Maxwell Cabelino Andrade
  Maxwell Scherrer Cabelino Andrade , commonly known as Maxwell, is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays for Spanish La Liga club FC Barcelona...
  
  , Brazilian fotballer who currently plays for Spanish La Liga club FC Barcelona

August 28, 1981 (Friday)

• For the third time in nine days, the world record for fastest running of one mile was broken. Sebastian Coe had broken the record of Steve Ovett
  Steve Ovett
  Stephen Michael James "Steve" Ovett OBE , is a former middle distance runner from England. He was gold medalist in the 800 metres at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, U.S.S.R., and set world records for 1500 metres and the mile run...
  
   with 3:48.53 in Zurich
  Zürich
  Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
  
   on August 19. Ovett took the record back on August 26 in Koblenz
  Koblenz
  Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
  
   at 3:47.33, and Coe set the mark again at Brussels
  Brussels
  Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
  
  , at 3 minutes, 46.32 seconds, a time that would stand until Steve Cram's run in 1985.

August 29, 1981 (Saturday)

• Two men from the Abu Nidal
  Abu Nidal
  Abu Nidal , born Sabri Khalil al-Banna , was the founder of Fatah–The Revolutionary Council , a militant Palestinian group more commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization...
  
   organization fired guns and threw grenades into a synagogue
  Synagogue
  A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
  
   on Vienna
  Vienna
  Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
  
  's Seitenstettengasse during worship services. Police who were guarding the building fought a gunbattle with the terrorists before arresting them. In the crossfire, two bystanders were killed and 15 others wounded in the crossfire. Nobody inside the synagogue was hurt.
• Died: Lowell Thomas
  Lowell Thomas
  Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...
  
  , 89, American journalist and broadcaster

August 30, 1981 (Sunday)

• A bomb planted by Mujahedeen terrorists at the office of Iran's Prime Minister Bahonar killed both him and Iranian President Raja'i. Both had been in office for less than a month. After the double assassination, more than 2,000 Mujahedeen members and sympathizers were arrested and executed.; *Died: Vera-Ellen
  Vera-Ellen
  Vera-Ellen was an American actress and dancer, principally celebrated for her filmed dance partnerships with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye and Donald O'Connor.-Early life:...
  
  , 60, American dancer and film actress

August 31, 1981 (Monday)

• The Satellite Music Network
  Satellite Music Network
  Satellite Music Network was the first satellite delivered network to provide complete live 24-hour a day music programming to local stations, under several different formats...
  
   went on the air, beginning a new era in radio broadcasting where local disk jockeys were replaced by music programming transmitted from a central location. "Network Radio Is Turning into Satellites", New York Times, August 2, 1981 The SMN transmitted from Mokena, Illinois
  Mokena, Illinois
  Mokena is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The population was 14,583 at the 2000 census, with a special census conducted in 2007. The 2007 census showed that the population of the village increased to 18,669 people residing within the corporate limits...
  
   24 hours per day, with breaks for local advertising and news, and served 600 stations before being purchased by ABC Radio in 1989.
• A bomb exploded at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein
  Ramstein Air Base
  Ramstein Air Base is a United States Air Force base in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz. It serves as headquarters for the United States Air Forces in Europe and is also a North Atlantic Treaty Organization installation...
  
  , West Germany
  West Germany
  West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
  
  , injuring 20 people.